Coronavirus and How to Mitigate a Worst Case Scenario
In just a few short weeks, the prospect of a normal educational schedule has been thrown into the balance. Now, schools, colleges and universities are faced with the possibility of a complete shut down - no pupils, no teachers and a significantly reduced ability to deliver lessons in a meaningful way, all with critical exam periods fast approaching.
Coronavirus is at the forefront of the news at the moment, and with other countries already restricting large gatherings and closing schools, it seems it’s only a matter of time before we start to see an impact on the ability of institutions to continue delivering training. In fact,as of today, over 500 million children are already being affected by the coronavirus closures
With important questions raised about our ability to continue working, and its subsequent impact on the economy, many parents will be asking how schools, colleges and universities are preparing to keep their children on track with their learning and exam preparations if closures will last as long as those we have seen in mainland Europe.
Whilst the frenzied media coverage might have you worrying about the effect coronavirus will have on your day-to-day life, the advancement of technology may actually allow many of the worst impacts on education to be circumvented.
Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) offer a widely accessible, interactive and engaging way to deliver learning materials regardless of geography, or in this hypothetical case, government-mandated closures of schools, colleges and universities. The functionality of VLEs seems to expand year-on-year, and the combination of LMS and LXP offerings to boot would seem to suggest growing availability of these solutions will soon translate into further adoption of this technology on the ground.
No, VLEs will not substitute actual, in person classroom learning at schools (not yet at least). But there is a surprising amount of the experience VLEs can replicate now: learning with a streamed teacher on screen, homework assignment, submittal and marking, social messaging between peers and their teachers, and the list goes on.
Perhaps as time progresses, people will ask why this technology, that is increasingly used in our private lives (particularly younger generations), is not being utilised to its full potential in education, especially when spotlighted by current events. Already, experts are predicting the impact of coronavirus will compel universities to rethink their elearning strategies See here and here.
Is your school, college or university looking to do the same? Open eLMS is a comprehensive Virtual Learning Environment and Learning Management System, and is able to handle a raft of learning tasks:
- Deliver engaging and interactive elearning in a familiar, modern user interface much like Netflix
- Incorporate many resource types, including YouTube/Vimeo, presentations, web pages and Google Classroom
- Manage learning easily with a central resource library, bulk assignment of resources and powerful reporting functionality
- Universal compatibility: works on any system, any browser, any OS - students can access learning anywhere, anytime with an internet connection
- Instantly identify where learners are struggling provide targeted support to students in their weakest areas by attaching learning outcomes to your resources
Book a demo today to see how Open eLMS can help improve your quality of education, and be an invaluable asset in contingency planning for the future!
Additionally, take a look at our Free Coronavirus Awareness Training!
An example of our diverse client list ...